Goodbye

Captain America 2 To Take Place In A Modern World Where “Nothing Is Black And White”

There’s a bit of structural sleight of hand in Captain America: The First Avenger, wherein a montage of battle sequences not only moves along the plot, it provides for more stories from this time period to be told in subsequent movies.

We know we’ll be getting some of those flashbacks in the sequel, but the main body of the film, it seems, will be set in the present day. No surprise there, really.

Here’s co-writer Stephen McFeely talking about the plans for film 2:

I think it’s safe for us to say that it’s primarily set in the modern day. That seems to have been the biggest question people have been wondering about regarding the sequel. Most people know the story of Captain America as the story of this man out of time… [we will] explore Cap entering the modern day wondering, “What is all this? What’s happened to the world” and so on.

What has happened to the world? Big question. And the answer isn’t really cut and dried, but McFeely and his partner Christopher Markus will have to make a decision and take a stand. Here’s Markus, giving us some indication of their point of view:

We made a movie where the world was in context for Steve Rogers. It was a movie where it was a more pure time, where there were clearly black-and-white, right-and-wrong, good-and-evil scenarios. And Cap is a guy who symbolizes that. Now he’s in the now, and there is nothing black-and-white.

I’ll agree that we live in a world of moral ambiguity. But I’d disagree that the moral context surrounding the second world war was “black and white.”

Still, if they’re talking in relative terms, and as a means to generate drama, juxtaposing this naive war hero against “an uncertain world”, I think the guys are on to a rich seam of potential.

The full interview with Markus and McFeely is at The HD Room.

Watchmen 2 Approaches

Two days ago, Bleeding Cool mentioned that Watchmen prequels at DC were back on the agenda, after the success of the New 52. That meetings were happening this week. That it had the code name “Panic Room”. That names mentioned included Dave Gibbons, John Higgins, Darwyn Cooke, JMS, JG Jones, Andy Kubert and more.

Indeed I am now told that there will be four Watchmen miniseries, all prequels. Working off an over-arching uber-plot by Darwyn, who will be writing and drawing on aa book or two.

MTV Geek found a comment from Darwyn Cooke from earlier in the year when he said;

“I have something coming up with DC, but I’m sworn to secrecy…there is a very big project on the horizon with DC, which we’re probably going to announce in October, as far as I understand. And that should be exciting, and infuriating, and all kinds of things to people. It should be quite a shock when they hear what we’re doing.”

And a Bleeding Cool correspondant chatting to Andy Kubert over the weekend discovered that:

“Mr.Kubert said that after his Action Comics job he was hoping to finish a Batman mini-series about Damian. This was a mini that he was writing and drawing and was originally planned before Flashpoint and the New 52.  After that he said he has another project but it’s “Super Secret” and that he couldn’t give any details.  The last time I spoke to Andy Kubert was at the Big Apple Con in 2009.  When we spoke he said he was going to be doing a “Super Secret” project that he couldn’t talk about, turned out it was “Flashpoint”.  So if Andy Kubert has a big job coming up and DC is saying that they’re doing an event for the next two years, then what is Kubert doing?”

DC declined to comment.

Mickey Rourke Apparently Won’t Return for Expendables Sequel

Back in May, a spoiler-filled synopsis of The Expendables 2 started making the rounds indicating that the plot will revolve around the murder of Tool, “the heart and soul of The Expendables” played by Mickey Rourke. Whether the movie, now directed by Simon West (The Mechanic) instead of the first film’s helmer, writer and star Sylvester Stallone, goes down that route or not, Deadline reports that Rourke will not be involved.

Or so it seems, as he’s in negotiations to work with In Bruges director Martin McDonagh’s next flick Seven Psychopaths. That production will be filming at the same time as Expendables 2 and would seemingly put Rourke out of the running. Of course, what would stop him from popping in for a quick death scene before heading back to the set of Seven Psychopaths, where he’ll star alongside Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell in a story about a screenwriter who gets drawn into his friends’ scheme to steal a mobster’s dog.

However things shake down, you’ll definitely see Rourke next month in Tarsem Singh’s Immortals, starring opposite Man of Steel‘s Henry Cavill.

Geoff Johns and Gary Frank Revive SHAZAM!

Captain Marvel's DC Comics status is frequently murky, and the fact that part of his name also happens to be the name of their direct competitor doesn't exactly help. 

DC might be remedying that situation in their latest revival of the character, Curse of Shazam. Appearing as a Justice League back-up by the Superman: Secret Origin team of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, it's a revamp of the property, and it looks like the "Marvel" name might be severely de-emphasized in favor of "Shazam" -- or perhaps disappear altogether.

Writer sues 'The Hangover Part II' filmmakers for stealing his biographical script

An aspiring screenwriter has sued Warner Bros. and the filmmakers behind The Hangover Part II for copyright infringement, defamation, fraud, and other charges, claiming that the R-rated comedy copied a script he had written about his wild personal experiences in Asia. After his marriage to a Japanese woman fell apart during his honeymoon in 2008, Michael Alan Rubin went on some adventures that he turned into a screenplay titled Mickey and Kirin.

In the suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Rubin says The Hangover sequel “is copied from the treatment … and also from the real life incident of the Plaintiff, because the protagonist in Hangover-2 travels from the United States to an Asian country to marry his Asian girlfriend.”

The lawsuit blames his ex-wife, Tamayo Otsuki, for giving the filmmakers his story and goes on to accuse them of defaming him with the franchise’s description of Ed Helms’ character — that he married a prostitute in Vegas while under the influence of drugs and had sex with a transsexual prostitute. For the record, it should be noted that Rubin is representing himself in the matter.

Agent Coulson Short Movies

Marvel Studios has been releasing some short movies with Agent Coulson as an extra in their DVDs. Here you have the two already available.